Colors of Rebellion
by Redrangerpower
Summary: A short drabble and pseudo companion piece of Red Eye. Human emotions, passions, and beliefs can become entwined with the most curious of things, like say a humble color.


**Colors of Rebellion**

New Eden City was a metropolis of ordered and controlled thought. Anything that was deemed dangerous by those in the seats of power was swiftly, and mercilessly stamped out under the heels of propaganda, threats and doors suddenly slammed shut, never to be opened again. One of the more infamous things that New Eden's self styled gods of order had tried to forcibly remove were the fleet footed information couriers known as Runners. Incredibly fit individuals, specializing in quickly and discreetly transporting less than legal data to and from whoever paid the right price, no questions asked.

Runners weren't seen as a threat by the general populace, if anything they were an interesting diversion, shadowy figures spoken of in second-hand rumors and wildly spun stories in the gossip tabloids. Any fanciful tale of conspiracy or adventure could be tagged onto the secretive parkour couriers. A new type of computer chip got leaked to a competitor company? A Runner did it. That dirty little accounting scheme suddenly turning up in the hands of somebody who could actually do something about it? A Runner did it. They were the Robin Hoods of a new era, putting knowledge back into the hands of a society who had been stripped of its right to freely seek it.

And there was one thing everybody knew about Runners: they wore red.

The reasons for this were always debated, and there were as many theories as there were stars in the sky.

It was in remembrance of the blood spilled during the November Riots.

No, it was all about how they saw the world. How the red equated to how they moved and thus how they made their living. It was a homage to what had made them Runners in the first place.

It could have been something as simple as identification; a Runner wore red because that was as close as they could come to a uniform to let others know who and what they were.

Or maybe it was just because New Eden seemed conspicuously lacking in the primary color and the Runners felt the need to reinject that passionate color into the city they called home.

That last theory, while almost certainly pure lighthearted fantasy, was a favorite to the common citizenry. It was another argument to use against the lofty order that called them a threat to stability. They weren't a threat, no, just crusaders trying to share a beautiful metaphor with everybody.

Faith Connors had occasionally wondered which motive fit the Runners she'd met. For Merc, it could very well have been the fairy-tale theory that so many people on the street liked to believe; trying to bring something back that had been shut out with the order and security that those in their glass pillars dealt out with iron fists. For Celeste, Faith got the feeling that it _was_ all just a badge to show that she was in the same club. She'd even confessed to her friend that she wasn't especially fond of the color, which had amused Faith quite a bit at the time.

The other Runners all had their own ideals and creeds attached to the color that was synonymous with the couriers. And they were welcome to interpret the color however they saw fit.

But for Faith herself, there was no question as to what red meant to her. It was a symbol of freedom, of doing what made her feel alive in the suffocating rigidness of New Eden. It was a symbol of remembrance for all that she had lost on that chaotic day in November when she was ten. It was a badge of honor, of belonging to a group that felt as much like a family as she'd had since she left her own on a stormy night when she was sixteen.

But most of all, it was one giant middle finger to those smug bastards who changed her city, her home, from a grand, living entity to a vacant husk of its former self.

It was a declaration to those mirrored towers that there were still people out there who knew what true freedom tasted like.

It was a promise to both herself and the great order those people created that she would always rebel against their attempts to erase free expression and thought.

In New Eden City, red was the color of a life unfettered by social constraints and the stifling chains that bound the city so tightly that people could barely breathe.

And a Runner in New Eden City, a Runner only saw red.

_End._

* * *

My, my it has been awhile since I roamed the Mirror's Edge fandom's halls. This sprung to mind during some brainstorming for a large scale crossover involving this game and I was compelled to share it. Expect to see a little more of that in the future, I love Mirror's Edge too much to not give it some love every so often.

Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to R&R.


End file.
